The Soviet Union officially claimed at the time that Laika was euthanized on Day 6 of the flight, just prior to oxygen depletion.

Laika was the Russian space dog aboard Sputnik 2 - the first animal in space

In 2002, Russia released the official records concerning Laika, who the workers on the project nicknamed “Little Curly”. Laika most probably died within hours of launch due to a failure of the cooling system.

When launched into space, there was no plan to recover Laika alive.

At the time, neither the Russians nor the Americans had the technology to bring home a spaceship once launched into orbit.

Laika was a stray dog picked up on the streets of Moscow. Scientists believed that a stray dog would have more ability to withstand wide swings in temperature.

Three dogs were trained for the mission. However, Laika was chosen to be aboard Sputnik 2 when it took off for space on November 3, 1957.